The Tawny
Milkcap Mushroom can be found in most deciduous
forests. On the North American continent it can be
found in southern Canada and the eastern United
States. It is also common in Europe. In Japan it is
known as chichitake and is used to make a flavorful
broth.

If you are
a mushroom hunter, you may like to eat the Twany
Milkcap. This species is edible and is a favorite
of collectors. It is best

eaten fresh because a white "milk", or sticky latex, seeps
out and turns brown when the gills are cut, giving it the
name Twany Milkcap. It has a strong fish-like odor,
especially when dry. Their flavor is mild,
however.

The Twany Milkcap's
cap is 2 to 5 inches wide, and smooth with a dry, velvety
feel to it. The upper part is orange-brown in color. The
edges of the mushroom cap turn up and becomes bowl shaped,
making it look like and inside out umbrella. When they are
young they have a darker, russet color, and turn almost pale
yellow as they get older. The gills are close together and
are almost white. They bruise easily and turn brown where
you touch them. The stalk can be up to four inches tall and
is also orange but it has darker streaks in it.

Tawny Milkcap
Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals. They belong to the
Fungi Kingdom, and like most fungi they are decomposers.
This means they break down dead organisms, and get all their
food from other organisms.The mushroom we see growing above
the ground is the fruiting and reproductive part of the
fungus that lives mainly underground, called the mycelia.
The mycelia are long, white, branching hairlike filaments
that grow very quickly through the leaf litter. The mycelia
send out a chemical that helps break wood down into
nutrients. The decomposing mushroom keeps leaf litter from
accumulating. Without decomposers the world would be buried
under a mountain of waste. Because mushrooms don't have
chlorophyll, and get their nutrients in other ways, they
don't need light to grow.

The above ground
mushroom part produces spores between the gills which, when
released, find a moist area and germinate. The germinated
spores sprout mycelia. The mycelia grow quickly, searching
for nutrients and water. When they find a good place the
begin reproducing, they make special reproductive cells
which grow into tiny mushrooms. Spores can travel by wind
and different animals. Insects are attracted to mushrooms by
their smell and carry spores to different places. Animals,
including people, eat mushrooms and their spores. This
doesn't hurt the spores, which are deposited in a nice,
nutrient rich, wet and warm package to start reproducing
again.